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Re: Modifiers by simile

From:caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date:Monday, October 29, 2007, 16:37
>Kurt Maxwell Weber <kmw@...> wrote:
>...but consider this situation: I want to say that a chair weighs as >much as an industrial microwave oven and is the color of wood >(contrived example, I know, but bear with me).
>So, I have "clock weight-of-microwave used-in-restaurant and color-of- >wood"
>To a listener, this is ambiguous: does "color-of-wood" >modify "microwave" or "clock"?
To avoid the ambiguity can you not reverse the modifiers and say, at least in this example, "clock color-of-wood and weight-of-microwave used-in-restaurant"? Must size description precede color description? Charlie

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Kurt Maxwell Weber <kmw@...>